Read Sisters of Treason Online
Authors: Elizabeth Fremantle
Sisters of Treason (57 page)
L | Countess of Essex, Countess of Leicester; wife of (1) Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex, (2) Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, (3) Sir Christopher Blount. Lettice was one of the fourteen children of Lady Knollys and mother of Penelope, Dorothy, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and Walter. She was exiled from court for secretly marrying Dudley, Elizabeth I’s favorite, for which she was never forgiven. (1543–1634) |
L | Daughter of renowned Flemish illuminator Simon Bening, wife of George Teerlinc, and mother of Marcus Teerlinc. Levina was the eldest of five daughters and trained as an artist in her father’s studio in Bruges. In 1548 she joined the English court, possibly at the invitation of Katherine Parr, serving as court painter for Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I, and as gentlewoman to both queens. Her earnings in 1546 are recorded as £40 (more than Holbein). Though little of her work survives, there are two limnings of Katherine Grey, one alone (in the V&A collection) and another in which she is holding the baby Lord Beauchamp, and there is a further portrait by her that is possibly of Jane Grey. She is known to have painted Elizabeth I several times and was granted English citizenship in 1566. (c.1520–1576) |
L | Member of the household of Elizabeth I. (Dates not known) |
M | Member of the household of Mary I. Tall, blond, and pretty, she attracted the unwanted attentions of the Queen’s husband, Felipe II. (1538–1608) |
M | The only child of Levina and George Teerlinc. (Dates not known) |
M | Margaret Clifford, Lady Strange, was the niece of Frances Grey and first cousin of the Grey sisters. Margaret openly declared her belief that her cousins had forfeited their right to the succession because of their father’s treason, thus claiming that she was Mary I’s true heir. (1540–1596) |
M | Queen of England, 19 July 1553–17 November 1558; eldest daughter of Henry VIII with Catherine of Aragon; wife of Felipe II of Spain. Mary was deemed illegitimate by her father but subsequently reinstated into the royal succession. England was returned to Catholicism in her reign, and the brutal methods used to achieve this mean she is remembered as Bloody Mary. Desperate to produce a Catholic heir, Mary had a succession of phantom pregnancies, which caused her great distress. (1516–1558) |
M | Lady Mary Grey, youngest daughter of Frances and Henry Grey, Duke and Duchess of Suffolk—sister of Jane and Katherine Grey. Mary married Thomas Keyes without royal permission, resulting in her imprisonment in 1665 on the order of Elizabeth I. She was released in 1572 after the death of her husband. Though described by a contemporary ambassador as “little, crook-backed and very ugly,” Mary was not hidden away but educated with her sisters and was thought to have been as precocious as Jane. (1545–1578) |
M | Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, Queen of France; wife of (1) François II of France, (2) Lord Darnley, (3) Earl of Bothwell; mother of James VI of Scotland and I of England. As a Catholic, Mary Stuart believed herself to be the rightful Queen of England, rather than Elizabeth, who was the product of a marriage that was not recognized by the Catholic Church. Raised in the French court, Mary was returned to Scotland aged eighteen, after the death of her husband François. Elizabeth had hoped to control her and had even proposed her favorite, Robert Dudley, as a possible husband in order to do this, but Mary rashly married her cousin Darnley, who died in violent and suspicious circumstances. Once married to the unpopular Bothwell, who it was believed had murdered Darnley, Mary was forced to abdicate the crown and flee Scotland. She hoped for Elizabeth’s mercy in England, only to find herself arrested and eventually, after nineteen years of incarceration, executed for treason. (1542–1587) |
M | Loyal servant to Lady Jane Seymour and Hertford. (Dates not known) |
